More than 150 runners lined up on Saturday for the 36th Annual Kendall Mountain Run and fourth Annual “K2” Double.

Both races started at 12th and Greene streets at 8 a.m., and follow the Kendall Mountain Road six miles up to within 250 vertical feet of the 13,066 foot summit of Kendall. Runners then scramble up a steep trail to tag the summit marker before flying back down to town the way they came up. K2 Doublers make the ascent to the top twice for a little more than 24 miles.

The race was first held in 1978, started by running enthusiast Bill Corwin who modeled the race after a famous bar bet made back in 1908 which sent runners climbing straight up the front face of the mountain and hurling themselves down the avalanche chute facing town.

That first runner made it to the top and back to town in 1:31:42. Rick Trujillo, a legendary Colorado mountain runner won the first edition of the modern day race in 1:40:01 and the current record is held by Sheldon Larson who ran a 1:35:07 in 1985.

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